The atlas v rocket is one of the largest currently available for interplanetary
flight. It has already propelled 'Insight' and
'Curiosity' to mars, so what is planned next at Cape
Canaveral? Stick around to find out! Hello everyone,
and welcome back to ElderFox Documentaries.
Today's video will feature everything you need to know
about the upcoming launch to mars, we hope you enjoy it.
Let's start with a bit of an existential question:
Why Mars? Well for one thing, human curiosity. We have planted feet on
the moon, so mars seems like the next logical
destination for a manned mission. But lofty goals require plenty of
forethought and research. The pull of the unknown draws us to Mars.
Sure, Columbus headed west and Marco Polo headed east.
Explorers looking to map uncharted lands, but this was on earth, our home, not
another planet! Sending people to mars seems like the
next giant leap for mankind, but it really is a journey into the
unknown. Before we send a crew of brave men and
women on an almost two-year journey spanning 100
million kilometers we had better make sure that they can
thrive once they get there. Sending robotic probes to scout ahead
can answer key astronomical questions about the potential for life on mars.
Not only giving us information on whether mars was once capable of
sustaining life, but also whether there is a potential to
build a habitat and populate the planet.
The 'Perseverance' rover represents the latest in a long line of remote robotic
exploration vehicles sent to the red planet over the last
44 years. It seeks to answer further questions raised by its predecessor
'Curiosity', which made its landing on mars in 2012,
and was the most ambitious mission flown by
NASA at that time. This 'little engine that could'
has now been on mars for almost eight Earth years,
2835 Mars days to be exact. It has fulfilled its primary mission of
finding evidence of organic molecules and geological change
on Mars. It continues to explore and search for
water in the form of ice. So where does the
'Perseverance' fit into the mission?
'Perseverance', although based on 'Curiosity's' design,
will carry different instruments to better probe for ancient life.
The main goal will be to both confirm that past conditions were
habitable, and also look for signs of actual microbial life.
Sorry to disappoint, but the rover is not likely to encounter 'little green men'.
But first it has to make touchdown, it's the reason why 'Curiosity's' blueprint was
used as a basis and improved upon. NASA hopes to replicate
its success.
This video is made from a series of images 'Curiosity' took on its way through
the martian atmosphere. The frame rate is low but we can see
Mars as 'Curiosity' did when it descended. Looking back at 'Curiosity's' famous 'Seven
Minutes of Terror' landing sequence gives us a valuable
insight into the way 'Perseverance' will make its approach to the red dust of
Mars. This process may look crazy but it's the
culmination of the combined engineering knowledge of some of the best minds on
this planet. There is pretty much a zero margin of
error. It will take all of seven minutes to
reach the surface from the top of the atmosphere.
the kicker is that it takes 14 minutes for information to be beamed back to
Earth. There will be no opportunity for human
intervention. The descent must be controlled
autonomously by the on-board computer. The approaching craft will initially hit
speeds of 30,000 miles per hour and must decelerate
to zero miles per hour in perfect sequence and timing, in order
to not sustain damage. Nothing can go wrong!
Once entering the atmosphere, the heat shield encounters such severe
aerodynamic resistance that it glows like the surface of the
Sun. Hitting a temperature of 1600 to 2100 degrees
Celsius. Not only does the craft have to be slowed down
tremendously quickly, but it also has to be guided to the landing site.
By the time the parachute deploys, the craft is still
travelling one thousand miles per hour. It's the largest and strongest
supersonic parachute ever built. It opens so fast that it
pulls 9G! At this point the heat shield
must detach. Like a lens cap on a camera it will be
blocking the radar's view of the ground topography and distance.
The radar has to take altitude and velocity readings at an
exact precise time or else the landing will fail.
The parachute will only slow it down to 200 miles per hour,
nowhere near slow enough to land. There is no choice but to detach
and cover the remaining distance with retro booster assist.
The next issue is that the rockets can't be used all the way to the ground,
as they will kick up dust covering the rover
and damaging mechanisms and instruments.
This problem is solved by using the 'sky crane maneuver'.
20 meters above the surface, the rover is lowered below the lander on a tether
that gently deposits its wheels onto the
surface.
The bridle is then cut away, and the lander flies away to a safe distance to
avoid landing near or on top of the rover.
Once on the ground, the team at NASA can breathe a
sigh of relief.
The 'Jezero' crater was chosen by NASA as the landing site for the 'Perseverance'
rover. The topography of the area looks
amazingly similar to the structure of the Mississippi river delta found
on earth. The rationale is that if water is essential for life then an
ancient river system would be the ideal place to look.
The theory is that three and a half billion years ago,
river channels spilled over the crater wall and formed an immense
lake within the meteor impact crater. There is
some evidence that water carried clay minerals from the surrounding area
into the crater lake. Hypothetically, life could have lived in 'Jezero' crater
during times of liquid water and the sediments in the lake bed could
be a source of their remains. After all, clay only forms in the
presence of liquid water. 'Perseverance' will use a
similar process for entry, descent and landing as 'Curiosity', however
improvements have been made to land the 'Perseverance' closer to its prime
specific target than any rover before it. As you saw with
the 'Curiosity' descent, it's already an extremely hard task to
land on Mars, let alone within 10 kilometers of the
primary region of interest. 'MEDLI2' instruments will take
recordings of temperature and pressure encountered by the heat shield and
afterbody in the hope that the process can be
further refined and made safe for future missions.
Cameras and microphones will also help engineers understand the physics
involved throughout the landing process, recording the deployment of the chute,
detachment of modules, firing of the rockets and the tether
process as it unfolds for the first time. The added benefit
is that the people looking on from earth get a first person view
of what it's like to enter Mars' atmosphere,
and then land on its surface. Real footage,
not computer-generated sequencing!
The 'Perseverance' rover design is largely based on the engineering design for the
Mars rover 'Curiosity'. The reliance on a proven system reduces
mission costs and risks. 'Perseverance's' long-range
mobility system allows it to travel on the surface of
Mars over a distance of 3 to 12 miles. It boasts a new
improved and more capable wheel design. This is the first rover to carry a drill
for coring samples from martian rocks and soil.
The samples are gathered and stored in tubes on the martian surface,
a strategy called 'depot caching'. 'Caching' will pave the way for future
missions that could collect the samples and return them to earth for intensive
laboratory analysis. Future human exploration of Mars depends
on a technology for extracting oxygen from the martian atmosphere,
which is 96% carbon dioxide. The caches will give vital clues as to
how the process can be perfected. The new technology helps mission
planners discover ways of using mars natural resources to support human
explorers and improve designs for life support,
transportation, and other important systems for living
and working on Mars.
The 'Perseverance' rover will answer questions that 'Curiosity' could not,
but we must not forget the great work 'Curiosity' has done!
Click here to see new footage of Mars rendered for the first time
in stunning 4k quality. If you enjoyed this video
please give it a like and let us know in the comments what you think the rover
will find in the 'Jezero' crater. Tell us, we love to hear from you!
Thanks for watching ElderFox!